Robots Swarm Oil Spills

In spite of new and unexpected findings by a Berkeley Lab research team that
microbes have done
an amazing job taking care of the underwater oil plume in the Gulf
of Mexico, oil on the surface can cause a lot of damage to wildlife and
property if it washes ashore.
Researchers at MIT are working out ways to skim that surface oil using a
swarm of robots.
The robots communicate with each other using a WiFi network, and using
GPS then coordinate their movements with software inspired by natural
swarms. Oil is dealt with on the spot by heating it thus avoiding a
lengthy trip to shore.
See
the video.